The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Google Plus is back in the headlines again, but not for any spike in users or must-have new features. Rather, Google's social network has now become further entwined in yet another of Google's properties, YouTube.

YouTubers, both video creators and commenters, are upset about the new requirement of pretty much anyone using the site to do so through their Google Plus account, whether they currently have one or not.

The most noticeable change with this new integration is the comment system, where users now must comment using their Google Plus profiles, which more often than not, is their real names. Other issues include new comment notifications being delivered to a user's Google Plus inbox instead of their YouTube inbox, top comments supposedly being from people you tangentially know on G+, and the constant pressure to change your YouTube account name to your real name, even after clicking "no" dozens upon dozens of times (this last one has been happening well ahead of the G+ transition).

It's easy to see what Google is trying to do here, at least superficially. YouTube comments have always been held up as some of the worst on the internet, full of memes and crudity and all around terribleness. This new move is supposed to raise more substantive comments to the top, and force people to hopefully behave better when they're forced to use their real names.

Writing under my real name on the internet for the last five years, I've sometimes secretly wished that everyone had to experience the same pressure that comes with that, and be responsible for every vile thing they've said on the internet (and to me) rather than hiding behind the cloak of anonymity.

That said, I ultimately recognize that anonymity is part of what makes the internet work, and to eliminate it and create a system where there's a permanent record of anything anyone's ever done or said on the web can get a bit 1984 rather fast. And in terms of comment quality, I've seen plenty of sites move to " account only" comments that have people using their real names and spewing idiocy and hate regardless. The lesson here is that stupid people will continue to be stupid no matter how you force them to identify themselves.

And while this is being presented like a goodhearted attempt by Google at cleaning up YouTube, it does come off as kind of a cheap way to get even more people to sign up for Google Plus when they wouldn't have voluntarily done so otherwise. They've already done this once by forcing pretty much everyone with a Gmail account to have a Google Plus account as well, and now yoking the network to YouTube will draw even more in. I'm sure they'll go on to spout numbers about the dramatic growth of Google Plus over the last few years, but there will be no mention of how many of those users signed up knowingly or willingly.

Even though much of the web has made it something of a running joke, Google Plus is not a bad social network. It's actually got quite a lot going for it and depending on who you interact with, is far from the "Ghost Town" I once called it. It's Facebook for people who are sick of their Facebook friends. It's Twitter for those who wish they could break free of being restrained to 140 measly characters. It has its place on the internet, but it's disquieting the way Google is herding every single one of their users to join, whether they want to or not.

And as of now, these changes aren't making YouTube any better. Clicking on any random popular video right now doesn't reveal a string of insightful comments from my Google Plus friends. It's either people exploiting the new comment system by posting walls of nonsense text, spam bots who have make their own G+ accounts and are bragging about making $500 a day working from home, or people using their real names to contribute the ever-insightful "lol."

Google Plus has evolved into a useful, functional social network. But let people join it on their own, or else they'll resent being forcibly thrust into it. If there's a way to fix internet commenting, this doesn't appear to be it.